After the Dallas Cowboys held off the Detroit Lions in the Wildcard Round on Sunday, many viewers smelt a ratings conspiracy due to a controversial pass interference flag against Dallas that was picked up. While nobody's admitting to that, the NFL did admit another officiating mistake earlier today. This mistake occurred a few minutes after the zebras picked-up the pass interference flag, and was reported by ESPN's Adam Schefter:
Video of the play (which you can watch here) showed Cowboys guard Ronald Leary holding Lions tackle Ndamukong Suh milliseconds before Tony Romo gets off a pass to tight end Jason Witten (if you don't want to click the link, here's a shot of the hold):
2.
The resulting play was a 21-yard catch for a first down (on a fourth-and-6, no less) that would've otherwise made it fourth-and-16 and almost certainly prompted the Cowboys to punt. Later in the drive, Dallas scored what became the game-winning touchdown further rubbing salt into the Lions' open wound.
While similar holds are DVR'd by enraged fans all the time, this one was simply noteworthy because anytime the NFL shows even the slightest hint of humility it's noteworthy. Of course, it's not like they're going to replay the game or anything. So it's likely nobody in Detroit ultimately gives a shit.
[via Vine/Adam Schefter]
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